bugGNU troff - Bugs: bug #49887, nroff -D option (in particular,...

 
 

bug #49887: nroff -D option (in particular, -Dutf8)

Submitted by:  None
Submitted on:  Mon 19 Dec 2016 01:46:20 PM UTC  
Votes:  1  
 
Category: NoneSeverity: 3 - Normal
Item Group: WishlistStatus: Wont Fix
Privacy: PublicAssigned to: None
Open/Closed: ClosedPlanned Release: None

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Tue 20 Dec 2016 12:34:49 PM UTC, comment #6:

Why does groff(1) has the -Dutf8 option then if the 'true' way of dealing with charsets is to use preconv?

Vladimir Nikishkin <lockywolf>
Tue 20 Dec 2016 12:10:30 PM UTC, comment #5:

This is not a groff issue. There are two major manpage formatting tools: mdocml (aka mandoc(1)) and groff. mdocml has it's own man(1) version which does format UTF8 manpages correctly. The systems which are using groff should configure their man(1) correctly to use preconv. So it looks like man(1) or man(1) configuration issue, not a groff issue. BTW: The Linux systems I know display UTF8 manpages correctly.

Carsten Kunze <carstenkunze>
Project Member
Tue 20 Dec 2016 09:49:34 AM UTC, comment #4:

Well, essentially, I don't use nroff at all, but the Linux man utility (as well as many other UNIX man utilities) does.

And since most man pages are in utf8 nowadays, it really is a pain to see gibberish in the man pages on every freshly installed system.

Perhaps, we could convince the authors of Linux man to use preconv | nroff or groff -Dutf8, but it may not be so easy for commercial unices.

Or, maybe, -Dutf8 could even be a default option in nroff's call to groff.

Vladimir Nikishkin <lockywolf>
Tue 20 Dec 2016 09:27:09 AM UTC, comment #3:

AFAIK -D is not a GNU troff option but a groff(1) option. You may put preconv with option -D in the pipe before nroff to get the behaviour you expect. Likely it is also possible to use groff(1) with option -D and option -Tutf8 for this, but I never use groff(1) but the pipe "preconv | nroff" instead.

Carsten Kunze <carstenkunze>
Project Member
Tue 20 Dec 2016 06:25:51 AM UTC, comment #2:

True, it does support the -T option.

Basically, adding support for -D shouldn't be too hard. Probably, just copying the code for the -T option.

Anonymous
Mon 19 Dec 2016 03:02:24 PM UTC, comment #1:

Option -T is supported by nroff. -Tutf8 even is the default, I e.g. need to use -Tascii to get ASCII output instead of UTF-8 encoded characters.

Carsten Kunze <carstenkunze>
Project Member
Mon 19 Dec 2016 01:46:20 PM UTC, original submission:

Troff supports -D and -T options to indicate character encodings, whereas Nroff doesn't.

At the same time, nroff is used by man to format man pages (and nroff -mandoc) is default in /etc/man.conf.

Could the -D option be added to nroff, or, maybe, just proxied to troff (since, afaiu, nroff calls troff inside).

This would greatly enhance the user-friendliness of an average Linux distro, since many internationalised man pages are supplied in utf8.

It shouldn't be too hard to implement, since troff already supports this option.

Anonymous

 

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  • -unavailable- added by lockywolf (Posted a comment)
  • -unavailable- added by lockywolf (Voted in favor of this item)
  • -unavailable- added by lockywolf (Original anonymous bug creator.)
  • -unavailable- added by carstenkunze (Posted a comment)
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    Follow 4 latest changes.

    Date Changed By Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced By
    Fri 28 Apr 2017 10:01:08 PM UTCcarstenkunzeStatusNone=>Wont Fix
      Open/ClosedOpen=>Closed
    Tue 20 Dec 2016 08:53:33 AM UTClockywolfCarbon-Copy-=>Added lockywolf
    Tue 20 Dec 2016 08:52:57 AM UTClockywolfCarbon-Copy-=>Added -unavailable-

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